Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prize! He was a pacifist who believed that his inventions would make war impossible (he was wrong). The prize was first awarded in 1901. Nobel's will was contested by his relatives, and it took several years to establish the Nobel Foundation. The prizes are awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway (per Nobel's will, since Norway was in a union with Sweden at the time). The other prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. Nobel never married and had no children. He suffered from angina and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The element nobelium (No) is named after him. The Nobel Foundation manages the investments; the prize amount has varied, but as of 2023, it is 11 million SEK (about $1 million USD).

The Economics Prize was not established by Nobel! It is technically not a Nobel Prize but is awarded with the others. Some have criticized this, including members of the Nobel family. The will specified Physics, Chemistry, Medicine/Physiology, Literature, and Peace. The Peace Prize is the only one awarded in Oslo (the others in Stockholm). The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. The Nobel Foundation was established in 1900. The prize amount has varied over time. In 1901, the prize was 150,782 SEK (about $900,000 in today's money). The prize has been declined by a few laureates (Jean-Paul Sartre, Le Duc Tho). Some laureates have been forced to decline (by the Nazis). The prizes are widely considered the most prestigious awards in their fields.

Malala Yousafzai is the youngest! She was 17. The previous youngest was Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915), who was 25. Malala was born in 1997 in Pakistan's Swat Valley. She began blogging for the BBC about life under Taliban rule at age 11. She was shot on October 9, 2012. The attack was widely condemned. She recovered and continued her advocacy. She co-founded the Malala Fund to support girls' education. She is a UN Messenger of Peace. She graduated from Oxford University in 2020. She married Asser Malik in 2021. Malala Day is celebrated on July 12 (her birthday). The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway. Malala is the second Pakistani to win a Nobel Prize (Abdus Salam won Physics in 1979).

Marie Curie won Physics and Chemistry! She was also the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her first prize was shared with her husband Pierre. After Pierre's death (1906, crushed by a horse-drawn carriage), she continued their work and won the second prize alone. She coined the term "radioactivity." She developed mobile X-ray units ("Little Curies") during World War I. Her notebooks are still radioactive and stored in lead-lined boxes. She died of aplastic anemia from radiation exposure. She was the first woman buried in the Panthéon (Paris) for her own achievements. The Curie family has the most Nobel Prizes: Marie (2), Pierre (1), Irène (1), and Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1, with Irène). Marie remains an icon of scientific achievement.

Einstein won for the photoelectric effect! The prize committee specifically noted that he did not win for relativity. The photoelectric effect explained why light frequency, not intensity, determines whether electrons are ejected. This supported the quantum theory (Max Planck). Einstein's work on relativity (special relativity 1905, general relativity 1915) revolutionized physics. He was a German-born Jew who fled Nazi Germany in 1933. He settled in the United States and became a citizen. He was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 (he declined). His brain was preserved after his death (the family did not consent; it was kept by a pathologist). Einstein is often called the most influential physicist of the 20th century. His image is one of the most recognizable in the world.

King won the Peace Prize! The Nobel Committee called him "the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence." King was the second African American to win a Nobel Prize (Ralph Bunche won Peace Prize in 1950). King's "I Have a Dream" speech (1963) is one of the most famous speeches in history. He was arrested over 30 times. He survived an assassination attempt in 1958 (a woman stabbed him with a letter opener). He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Lorraine Motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, carried on his work. The first Martin Luther King Jr. Day was observed in 1986. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983 (over opposition from some senators).

Narges Mohammadi won the 2023 Peace Prize! She is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (founded by Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Peace Prize laureate). She has been arrested over 13 times and is currently imprisoned. The Iranian government called the award "biased and political." The prize drew attention to the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in Iran. The 2023 awards also recognized the mRNA research that led to COVID-19 vaccines (Karikó and Weissman). Claudia Goldin is the third woman to win the Economics Prize (after Elinor Ostrom, 2009, and Esther Duflo, 2019). Anne L'Huillier is the fifth woman to win the Physics Prize. The Nobel Prizes continue to honor groundbreaking contributions.

Jean-Paul Sartre declined the prize! He was a leading existentialist philosopher. His works include "Being and Nothingness" and "No Exit." He refused all official honors, including the Légion d'Honneur. He wrote a letter to the Nobel Committee explaining his refusal. The committee still lists him as a laureate (the prize cannot be rescinded). He accepted the prize money? No – he declined everything. Sartre was a political activist, supporting Marxism and criticizing imperialism. He visited Cuba and met with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. He also supported the Soviet Union (but criticized its human rights record). He died in 1980. His funeral was attended by over 50,000 people. Sartre remains a controversial figure in philosophy and literature.

Andrea Ghez was the fourth woman! She is an astronomer at UCLA. She used adaptive optics at the Keck Observatory (Hawaii) to track stars orbiting the galactic center. Her work proved the existence of a supermassive black hole (about 4 million times the sun's mass). Ghez is the first woman to win the Physics Prize since Donna Strickland (2018, for chirped pulse amplification). The others are Marie Curie (1903) and Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963, nuclear shell structure). Ghez's discovery confirmed a prediction of general relativity (Einstein, 1915). The work also relied on decades of observations. The 2020 award was announced during the COVID-19 pandemic; Ghez said she was "absolutely thrilled." The black hole at the galactic center is called Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-star").

Le Duc Tho declined! He said, "Peace has not yet been established... the American government has violated the ceasefire agreement." The Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973, but fighting continued. Saigon fell in 1975. Tho was a revolutionary figure; he led the Tet Offensive (1968) and the negotiations in Paris. He died in 1990. Kissinger accepted the prize but did not travel to Oslo; he sent a letter of thanks. He was a controversial figure due to his role in the bombing of Cambodia (which killed hundreds of thousands). The 1973 award remains highly contentious. Some argue that no Peace Prize should have been given for Vietnam. Others note that the ceasefire did temporarily reduce fighting. The Nobel Committee has never rescinded the prize.